Presently, the sorting process for all types of mail is at least partially manual. All mail is separated categorically at incoming loading docks at processing facilities and each category follows a similar sorting process with different levels of manual involvement. Categories of mail include, among others: stamped letters; metered letters; flats, e.g., magazines and brochures, which are larger and/or thicker than a typical envelope; bulk mail and parcels, e.g., packages, boxes and other larger-sized mailpieces; circulars, e.g. flyers, such as advertisements from businesses like supermarkets that are distributed to all postal patrons and therefore do not need to be scanned; accountable mail that requires a signature for delivery, e.g., certified mail, express (overnight) mail, return receipt mail, and collection on delivery (C.O.D.) mail; first class mail, i.e. the typical stamped letter; second-class mail; and third class mail. For example, although flats and letters follow similar sorting processes, flat sorting currently is less automated than letter sorting. For exemplary purposes, the sorting process presently used is described herein for letters, but it is to be understood that the process is similar, albeit more manual, for other types of mail.
In the present letter sorting process, letters are fed into an Automated Facer Canceller System (“AFCS”) that “faces” the letters (positions them so that addresses and postage face in the same direction for subsequent scanning) and checks for and cancels postage. At the output of the AFCS, the letters accumulate in bins. The bins are manually unloaded and transferred to letter trays. The trays are then loaded into wheeled all-purpose containers (“APCs”) and transported by motorized trucks or pushed by laborers to the next sorting machine.
The letters from the AFCS operation as well as letters received from other processing facilities are manually loaded in the Optical Character Reader (“OCR”) system for processing. The reader component of the OCR reads the address on the letter and determines if it has a usable bar code. If no barcode is present, the written address is read and resolved and the OCR “sprays,” or prints, a barcode on the envelope identifying the postal code, carrier route, and other information used in sorting. The OCR then roughly sorts the mail by areas or regions into bins. If the OCR cannot read the address or if the barcode is incorrect, the letter is rejected by the OCR and is sorted manually.
Because of the limited number of bins on an OCR sorting machine, a sorting scheme assigns bins based on previously experienced mail volumes for an area or region. For example, for a processing facility located in Northern Virginia, areas such as Washington, D.C.; Arlington, Va.; Alexandria, Va.; Southern Maryland; New York, N.Y.; San Francisco, Calif.; Los Angeles, Calif.; Chicago, Ill.; New England; the Southeast; the Midwest; the Northwest; and the Southwest each might have a designated bin at this stage based on the volume of mail sent out of Northern Virginia destined for each of these areas. The letters in these bins are manually removed and placed in letter trays. In some cases, the letter trays are ready to be manually transported to a staging area for later transport to another mail processing facility. In other cases, the mail is placed in letter trays that are manually transported and loaded in Delivery Bar Code Sorters (“DBCSs”) for processing to delivery sequence order by zip code and carrier route. The remaining letters are placed in letter trays that are staged to be run through the OCR operation a second time to further sort the mail.
After all the letters received by a predetermined cutoff time have been run through OCRs the first time, i.e., a “first pass,” the OCRs are shut down and programmed with a new, refined sorting logic to further sort the letters into smaller areas or regions, i.e., a “second pass.” Letters in the bins are manually removed and placed in letter trays. These letter trays are either transported to a staging area for transport to another processing plant, staged for a second pass through an OCR operation, or staged for transport to a DBCS machine for processing to delivery sequence order based on zip code. Because all OCR operations are shut down and all OCRs are reprogrammed at the same time with the same sort logic or sort schemes, letters may be further sorted (a “second pass”) on the same OCR or a different OCR as the first pass. Letter trays of first pass OCR-sorted letters requiring a second pass are manually reloaded onto the OCR, which reads the bar codes again and sends the letters to bins corresponding to particular zip codes, cities, towns, states, areas, regions, etc., where bins are assigned to an area based on the volume of letters anticipated for each of the locations.
Following the second pass by the OCR, the mail is manually removed from the bins and placed in trays. Again, some of the trays are ready to be manually transported to a staging area for transport to another processing facility where they will be further sorted. Many letters are destined for local post offices serviced by the processing facility, and these trays are manually placed in carts and manually transported by motorized trucks or push carts to Delivery Bar Code Sorters (“DBCS”) located within the same processing facility, or to staging areas for transport to other local facilities with DBCSs, such as local post offices.
A DBCS machine, using two sequential processing operations, sorts letter mail to carrier delivery sequence order. The DBCS “first pass” sorting operation sorts the mail for a particular zip code into “stop” order. For example, all of the first stops, i.e., first delivery points, for all routes in that zip code go to bin one. Similarly all second stops for all routes in that zip code go to bin two, and so on, where each carrier stop is assigned a bin. All the mail for a particular zip code is collected and run, thereby putting all mail for that zip code in a bin corresponding to the stop number. In short, if the mail from DBCS bin 10 was checked, it would be mail for all carrier routes in that zip code that corresponded to the tenth stop on the carriers' routes. Once all the mail for that zip code is processed or a predetermined cut-off time has been reached, the DBCS is shut down and the mail is manually removed from the bins and placed in letter trays corresponding to the bins from which it was removed.
For a zip code receiving a large volume of mail, the DBCS is assigned to process a particular zip code. If the mail volume for a particular zip code is low compared to machine processing capacity, one or more additional zip codes may be assigned to a particular DBCS machine for concurrent processing. If multiple zip codes are processed on one machine, the process for the first pass remains the same, and the mail is sorted by delivery sequence, stop, and order, regardless of the zip code or carrier route.
After the first pass on the DBCS has been completed, the machine is reprogrammed to sort the mail by carrier route in a second pass. If multiple zip codes are to be run on the machine, the mail is sorted by both zip code and carrier route. The second pass requires that the DBCS be manually fed mail in delivery stop order. The DBCS assigns bins to carrier routes for the second pass. The operator feeds the machine all first stop mail from the bin of stop one mail for all carrier routes (and appropriate zip codes if multiple zip codes are assigned to the machine). The DBCS sorts the first stop mail to the correct zip code and carrier route. After all the first stop mail has been fed, the operator then feeds all second stop mail from the bin of second stop mail. The DBCS then sorts the second stop mail to the correct carrier route (and zip code, if applicable). Next, the third stop mail is fed and sorted, and so on, until the last stop is sorted for the route with the most stops for the particular zip code(s) and carrier routes being processed. The result is that in a particular bin, which correlates to a particular carrier route, the mail for that route is in delivery sequence order starting with stop one and ending with the last stop on the route (unless the bin fills up prior to the last stop).
As a bin fills up, the operator removes the mail from that bin and places it in a letter tray assigned to that bin's zip code and carrier route. The first letter tray for a particular carrier route is identified as tray 1. As mail continues to be sorted to that carrier route, the operator continues to remove mail from the bin, i.e., “sweep the bin,” and place it in the letter tray. When letter tray 1 for a particular route is filled, another tray is selected and assigned the same route number and a tray sequence number of 2. Additional trays are assigned in sequence until all the mail for a particular route has been sorted. This process is the same for each carrier route. Should the operator not be paying attention and fail to empty a full bin, the DBCS will stop processing when any bin is 80% full.
These letter trays are manually collected, put in tray containers, and pushed or driven to a staging area in which other types of mail that has undergone a similar sorting process also is staged. The sorted mail is then manually loaded into vehicles and transported to local post offices, where it is unloaded and picked up by the carrier for delivery. If the DBCS is located at a local post office instead of the postal processing facility, the trays are not transported but are simply staged for carrier pickup.
In contrast to letter mail sorted to delivery sequence order at the postal processing facility, clerks sort parcels, flats, and other mail manually by carrier route at local post offices. Typically, at the local post office in a particular zip code or codes (and not the postal processing facility containing OCRs, DBCSs, etc.), parcels are manually sorted into hampers by carrier route, while flats and other manual mail are manually sorted by carriers into a “carrier route case” by carrier route in delivery sequence order. The case is laid out with cells in delivery sequence order into which the carrier sorts, or “cases,” the individual mail pieces. After the carrier has sorted or cased all his mail for the route, he empties the case in delivery order. This is done by removing the mail from the cell representing the first stop, next removing the mail from the second stop cell, and so on, until all the manual mail has been removed. The removed mail is placed in a letter tray with the address facing forward, thereby remaining in delivery sequence. The result of this removal of the mail from the case, called a “case pull down,” is trays of manually sorted mail organized in delivery sequence order for a particular route. These trays of manually sequenced delivery order mail resemble the trays of mail resulting from the DBCS operation.
Before starting street delivery operations, the carrier loads his truck. The carrier loads the parcels the clerk sorted to his route. There is no defined delivery sequence ordering of parcels and packages, but the carrier may choose to place the parcels and packages in some sort of delivery order. The carrier then loads the tray(s) of flats and other mail he manually sorted in the case to delivery sequence order and the trays of DBCS-processed mail from the cart. Thus there are two sets of trays with mail in delivery sequence order: the DBCS-sorted mail and the manually-sorted mail. The carrier must check each set of sequentially sorted mail for each address. In addition, if there are parcels or advertisement mailers or circulars (e.g., supermarket flyers that are not addressed to a particular person, but are delivered to all addresses on that particular route), the carrier must combine them before delivery. The carrier also has an accountable mail tray, which contains mail that requires a signature or other receiver action, such as certified, return receipt, collection on delivery, delivery confirmation, and registered mail. The carrier must identify these pieces and combine them before delivery. In short, the carrier may have to combine mail from up to five different mail streams for a delivery: DBCS sorted mail; manually sorted mail; parcels; advertisement circulars; and accountable mail.
OCR and DBCS operations are conducted at different times of the day based on class and service of mail. Because the time constraints for delivering third class mail, bulk mail, flyers, advertisement, etc. are not as strict as those for first class mail, third class mail is sorted during the morning and afternoon hours.
Typically first class mail received at a processing facility (the “A facility”) from local post offices, mailboxes, etc. is sorted by zip codes and regions on OCR machines from about 7 p.m. until approximately midnight. The midnight cut-off is critical for mail dispatched to other processing facilities within the overnight delivery territory (the “B facilities”). Mail received at the A facility from the B facilities is then run on an OCR and sorted by zip code between midnight and 2:30 a.m. At this point, mail destined for local delivery that was initially processed by the A facility or originated from the B facilities is staged for a first DBCS sort. This next step, the first pass of DBCS processing of mail, starts approximately 2:30 a.m. with a first pass cut-off time of approximately 4:30 a.m. After that cut-off time, no additional mail can be machine-processed to a particular zip code for that delivery day. The second pass on the DBCS follows to sort mail to delivery sequence order, and the sorting process is completed in time to meet dispatch to the delivery unit, which is anytime between 6:30 and 8:00 a.m. These machines are used to do other mail processing activities and to process other classes of mail at other times.
Sorting would be more efficient and mail throughput would be increased if an automated sorting process using machines linked in a sequential processing order and conducting the sorting scheme from start to finish replaced the present batch processing process. Batch processing requires a machine or groups of machines to perform the same portion of the sorting scheme simultaneously. Thus, all mail is read in a first pass, all machines are shut down and reprogrammed, and the mail is run a second time. Because of this protocol, present methods of sorting also require cut-off times, after which newly received mail must wait until the following day to be processed. In other words, if at 9 p.m. mail is being run through a second pass, new mail received and in need of the first pass cannot be run until the next day.
Automated sequential processing overcomes many of these drawbacks. Cut-off times are eliminated, as are machine shut downs, manual mail purgings, and system sort logic reprogrammings. In addition, all classes of mail capable of being sorted on the system are processed together, i.e., commingled, such as first class mail, circulars, boxes of checks from banks and other small parcels, and bulk mail, without a resultant delay in the delivery of first class mail. Due to the linkage between systems or components, the single pass sequential processing approach also eliminates the need for loading and transporting letter trays, thereby reducing labor and the need to store mail in between various stages of the sorting scheme.